The Peel Affinity

During the period of the Hundred Years War, virtually every adult was “in service” to a superior, in one way or another: peasants to their manorial lords (lay or ecclesiastic), knights to magnates or kings, clergy to their superiors and eventually to the pope, kings and popes ultimately to God.  Even towns and cities were under the patronage of rulers, and owed them service (e.g. troops at need) and money (taxes) in return for protection.

Although the Church used the term “affinity” to characterize relationships by marriage, the higher-ranking laity came to use it to refer to the extended networks of retainers who served individual lords.  These networks could include professionals such as lawyers and clerks, gentry and lesser nobility in the lord’s neighborhood, or extended family.

Although the definition feels rather loose, in practice every individual could readily answer the question “whom do you serve?” – and also understand another’s answer to the question.  Members of a lord’s affinity would recognize others in his service.

Although the term was generally used for relatively high-ranking people, La Belle Compagnie has adopted it to refer to the greatly extended group of people in service to Sir Geoffrey: tenants (who paid fees and performed agricultural and administrative services in exchange for protection and orderly rule); servants (who performed

The Household

The core of an affinity is the lord’s household, which comprises the lord, his family, and their servants, all of whom lived, slept, and ate together in the same house, whether on a permanent or a temporary basis. The higher the lord’s rank, the larger the establishment and the more numerous those in attendance on him; the Black Book of Edward IV expects a knight to have a household of 16. The aristocratic household was overwhelmingly male. The only uniquely female members were the laundresses, the nurses, and the lady’s attendants. Responsibilities were split up or combined according to the size of a household. A large household might have an entire office devoted to a task, while a small household might have a single person attending to that department, and a servant in a yet smaller household might find those duties only part of his job.

Once feudal residences developed private chambers for the lord and lady, the household divided into the upper and lower divisions.

The upper division was concerned with providing a congenial environment for the lord and included the chaplain, the chamberlain, and the chamber staff. Members were often of the same or slightly lesser rank than the lord. Additionally, there might be “household” knights and sergeants as part of this group. Such service was often a stage in the training of an aristocrat. The nobles of the upper house were probably little occupied by their “duties,” spending most of their time keeping company with their lord (advising, providing discussion partners, gaming, sharing in the hunt, running errands inside and outside of the house, and not least of all, providing suitable splendor). They were the men to whom the lord entrusted delicate, confidential, or complex matters. The men of the upper house were also available for military service, forming the core of his retinue, they also provided for his defense and were available to coerce the lord’s foes. These servants were able-bodied and expected to bear arms.

The lower division was concerned with toil such as the preparing the food, obtaining and maintaining supplies, and caring for the household’s goods and animals. The lower house was always larger than the upper, employing more staff. The lower house staff ran the kitchen, the buttery, the pantry, the stables, and other offices, employing yeomen, grooms, garcons, and pages. It seems likely that most of the staff were unmarried (since they were living in a house mostly lacking in women) and (presumably therefore) young.

Each of these divisions was overseen by one or more “head officers” (a steward or seneschal, sometimes aided by a treasurer and/or a comptroller). The “head officers” set general household policy, saw that order was kept, and closely monitored spending, but generally did not direct day-to-day tasks. These men were generally of a higher social rank than the other servants. In royal households they could themselves be aristocrats, though in such cases they likely delegated most of the actual work to their staffs.

Members of the household wore the lord’s livery (as appropriate to their station) and shared in his fortune.

The Military Company

English armies of our period were composed primarily of two types of troops: archers and men-at-arms. Other types appeared from time to time but were always in the minority. While proportions of troops varied throughout the Hundred Years War, in general the ratio of archers to other troops rose as the war went on. In 1334 (when the first reference to a mounted archer appears) the ratio of archers to men-at-arms was 1 to 1. Later in Edward III’s reign, the ratio was usually 2 to 1. By the early fifteenth century, it was up to 3 to 1, as specified by Henry V’s indenture of 1415. Actual proportions in the field were often higher. The extra archers beyond those called for in indentures came from specially raised bodies of “army archers” and the use of town militias from garrisoned French towns.

English armies were not large. The largest of the period, raised in 1347 by Edward III to lay siege to Calais, consisted of just over 32,000 men. Just over 20,000 of them were archers, about 1/5 mounted. Edward’s recruiting methods for that army were unpopular, however, and thereafter no army exceeded 10,000 to 12,000 men.

Available information about the organization of English armies is a little vague. The commander of a body of men was a captain, whether he was noble or common, and regardless of the number of troops. Men were often arranged into 20s, 100s, and 1000s. Under this scheme 19 men were commanded by the twentieth, the vintenar. Five of these units were commanded by a centenar. Such units were formed at enlistment. At an assembly point, such as a regional headquarters or a port of embarkation, the 20s and 100s could be amalgamated into 1000s. How retainers and retinues fit into this scheme is not clear.

Once the army was gathered, the troops were grouped into three “battles”: the vanward, the mainward, and the rearward. On the march, the van and the flanks were screened by detachments of mounted archers and men-at-arms. When drawn up for an engagement, the army could deploy in a linear fashion, and fight with all three battles simultaneously, or in a columnar fashion, and fight with each battle sequentially. Columns were favored for offensive operations, the depth of formation providing mass at the point of contact and offering a greater chance of achieving a decisive penetration of an enemy line. The line formation covered considerable frontage and was difficult to outflank, especially when anchored, as the English were wont to do, in difficult or impassable terrain. The English favored finding a good defensive location, deploying the battles in line, and waiting for the enemy to come to them.

But pitched battles were something the English avoided for most of the Hundred Years War. Theirs was a different strategy. Rather than risk all in a decisive engagement, they preferred the strategy of chevauchée, a looting, pillaging, destructive raiding style of warfare designed to demonstrate that the French king could not protect his subjects. It was no coincidence that such a strategy filled English coffers and made rich men of successful soldiers.

Sir Geoffrey’s Military Company

Sir Geoffrey’s military company is intended to represent typical English troops of the Hundred Years War.

The Company is built on a core of armored men comprising a knight commander (Sir Geoffrey) and several other men-at-arms. However, the bulk of his troops are archers of one kind or another. If Sir Geoffrey is participating in a chevauchée, his archers will all be mounted, but for other kinds of military expeditions he may have a mixture of mounted and foot archers.

The bulk of Sir Geoffrey’s soldiers are retainers and tenants from his manors. These men wear his livery and are equipped at his expense. He does this to ensure that they have good, solid military equipment, including armor, because it makes good military sense to have protected soldiers. He also wants his company to look as impressive as possible, something considered even more important in the Middle Ages than it is today.

Soldiers were also drawn from among the servants. Sir Geoffrey, like most lords of the time, expects his male servants to be capable of taking up arms at need, so he often includes a varlet or some other servant on the list of archers he presents to his employer.  In practice, such an “archer” would likely spend most of his time on the same types of domestic duties as he would perform at home — but he will be ready to be called upon when a military requirement arises.

Other archers in the array include men contracted by indenture for the specific campaign or purpose. The equipment of such men is much more variable and only some of them choose to wear Sir Geoffrey’s livery.

However a man comes onto Sir Geoffrey’s list of soldiers, that man must be paid. Pay rates vary by social rank, the type of duty, and agreed-upon terms. Sir Geoffrey’s men do not consider themselves mercenaries, men who fight for no master; they are just soldiers, and soldiers get paid (usually late). But the real lure of military service is the chance for loot and ransom. A lucky soldier can be set up for life by the proceeds from a single lucrative battle.

Recognized Customary Pay (vadia consueta guerre) 

Out of England 

Knight  2s 

Other Men at arms  1s 

Armati (armored foot soldiers) 6d 

Archers  3d

Mounted archers  6d 

Archers in English Garrison service 

Archers  2d 

Mounted archers  4d

 1 pound (£)= 20 shillings (s) = 240 pence (d)